What's Streaming? #Ham4Change Holds Virtual Fundraiser to Help End Systemic Racism
With theaters closed around the country, some companies are making their productions available online. Below, you'll find our weekly update of productions, videos, and other theater-related streaming content from across the US and elsewhere. Some streams are free, while others may charge a fee or request a donation. Either way, you're sure to find something to scratch your theater itch. Theaters may be dark, but the shows go on.
This Weekend
* The biweekly Great American Songbook Concert Series continues Thursday, April 13 at 7pm, and will feature Tony winner Jenn Colella. The show is free to watch. To learn more and to donate, check out the trailer below:
* PBS's Great Performances is now streaming an encore presentation of In the Heights: Chasing Broadway Dreams through September 4. The program showcases the 2008 musical that launched Lin-Manuel Miranda's rise to stardom. To watch the full episode, click here.
* Roundabout Youth Ensemble presents a virtual play written and produced by New York's youth. Hidden Truths, inspired by Shakespeare's Othello, brings to light injustices the black community faces. The show will be available on YouTube August 14-28 with a live launch event on August 14, 5-7pm. Written by Jaden Tench, Nicaulis Mercedes, and Xavier Chavez and directed by Tyia Boteng, the play addresses issues faced in 2020 with a post-pandemic twist. For more information, click here.
* Virtual event venue Looped is hosting the final installment of #Ham4Change, a fundraiser organized by the original cast of Hamilton to benefit organizations that are working to end systemic racism. The event, featuring members of the original Hamilton cast, will take place on Saturday, August 15, at 7pm ET. #Ham4Change benefits Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective, Law Enforcement Accountability Project, and When We All Vote. Tickets and special VIP experiences can be purchased here.
Broadway On Demand will exclusively stream the final New York City concert of Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley at Feinstein's/54 Below, Marin Mazzie & Jason Danieley: Broadway & Beyond, a celebration of Marin and Jason's life together through music and theater. The stream will take place on Friday, August 14, at 8pm ET, and will include a free pre-show event featuring Brian Stokes Mitchell, beginning at 7:30pm ET. Broadway & Beyond marks the couple's final New York City performance together before Marin's passing. All proceeds will be donated to the Cancer Support Community (CSC), Tina's Wish, and The Actors Fund through Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. For tickets and more information, click here.
(© David Gordon)
Upcoming
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater will present a benefit concert of Soldiergirls, a new two-person musical with book and lyrics by Em Weinstein and music by Emily Johnson-Erday. The show uses real letters and a collage of found and original text to look at love, liberation, and lesbianism in the Women's Army Corps in World War II. This free online benefit will raise money for SPART*A (Service Members, Partners, Allies for Respect and Tolerance for All) and will take place on Monday, August 31, at 7pm ET. To reserve your spot and donate, click here.
* Great Performances: Romeo and Juliet will premiere on Friday, September 11, at 9pm ET on PBS (check local listings), pbs.org/gperf, and the PBS Video app. This film adaptation of Shakespeare's masterpiece takes legendary Royal Ballet choreographer Kenneth MacMillan's 1965 ballet out of the theater and into the streets of a cinematic Verona, offering a passionate reimagining of this timeless love story set to Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev's original score.
* MCC Theater has announced that its annual gala, Miscast20, will take place on MCC Theater's YouTube Channel on Sunday, September 13, at 8pm ET. Performers will include Beanie Feldstein'';, Tony winner Heather Headley, Tony nominee Joshua Henry, Tony nominee Rob McClure, Nicolette Robinson, Tony nominee Phillipa Soo, and Tony nominee Adrienne Warren. The evening will also include appearances from Lucille Lortel and Outer Critics Circle Award winner Jocelyn Bioh, Tony nominee Raúl Esparza, and two-time Emmy and two-time Tony winner Judith Light'''. Watch the gala here.
Streaming Channels
* The documentary We Are Freestyle Love Supreme is currently streaming on Hulu. To subscribe to Hulu and Disney Plus, click here.
* Lin-Manuel Miranda's blockbuster musical Hamilton streams on Disney Plus, featuring the original cast, led by Miranda as Hamilton, Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr, Daveed Diggs as Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson, Renée Elise Goldsberry as Angelica Schuyler, Christopher Jackson as George Washington, Jonathan Groff as King George, Phillipa Soo as Eliza Hamilton, Jasmine Cephas Jones as Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds, Okieriete Onaodowan as Hercules Mulligan/James Madison, and Anthony Ramos as John Laurens/Philip Hamilton. To find out how to watch, click here.
* In Dominique Morisseau's play Pipeline, a public school teacher (Karen Pittman) must face the trauma of her son (Namir Smallwood) as a young black man when an incident threatens to get him expelled from a prep school. Pipeline streams on BroadwayHD. Read our critic's review here.
(© Jeremy Daniel)
* Spike Lee directs a filmed version Antoinette Nwandu's provocative play Pass Over, which tells the story of two young black men (Jon Michael Hill and Julian Parker) dreaming of escape from a racist world. A startling and disturbing riff on Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, Pass Over now streams on Prime Video. Read our critic's review here.
* Tony and Pulitzer Prize nominee Anna Deavere Smith wrote and stars in Notes From the Field, her solo play in which she probes the lives of students, parents, and teachers caught in the school-to-prison pipeline. The show streams on HBO.
Available for a Limited Time
* PBS's Great Performances is streaming the Public Theater's 2019 Shakespeare in the Park production of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. This bold interpretation of Shakespeare's comedic masterpiece features Danielle Brooks and Grantham Coleman as the sparring lovers Beatrice and Benedick. Tony Award winner Kenny Leon directs, with choreography by Tony Award nominee Camille A. Brown. Available through September 11. To watch, click here.
(© Joan Marcus)
* Transport Group's filmed performance of its world premiere musical Broadbend, Arkansas began streaming Monday, July 20 for four weeks. An original cast recording will be released by Broadway Records in July. Audiences can view the stream, hosted by Tony Award winner Chuck Cooper, free of charge here. In lieu of a ticket fee, the company encourages contributions be made to the Black Theatre Network. Available through August 16.
(© Carol Rosegg)
* Bette Davis Ain't for Sissies streams through September 24. Written and performed by Jessica Sherr, this new 80-minute live streaming version is directed for the small screen by Karen Carpenter. Tickets are $19.50 each and are available here.
* PBS streams of Anna Deavere Smith's drama Twilight: Los Angeles through August 7. Filmed by Marc Levin in 2001, Smith stars in a solo show that explores the aftermath of the 1992 Rodney King riots in Los Angeles. To watch, click here.
* Geffen Playhouse has extended The Present, its world-premiere live, virtual, and interactive theatrical experience written and performed by master illusionist, storyteller, and Geffen alum Helder Guimarães. The show will now run through October 10. A mystery package will be sent to you inside a USPS Priority Mail box before the show, so you must purchase tickets at least seven days in advance. To purchase tickets, click here.
* The world premiere of The Gifts You Gave to the Dark, written by Darren Murphy specifically for digital media in reaction to the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis, premiered on Wednesday, May 27 at 6pm ET and will remain online through October 2020. For more information, click here.
